Adjectives

Names an attribute of a noun and adds additional meaning to it.

Adjectives modify the noun that directly follow them. Every adjective is either a い-adjective or な-adjective.

All adjective can be categorized as either:

• い-adjective: always ends with い
• な-adjective: usually doesn't end with い, some common exceptions are listed below

い-adjectives

As mentioned, most adjectives that end with い are い-adjectives and can be used to prefix a noun directly to modify it:

• い-adjective + noun

For example:

な-adjectives

This class of adjectives act very similarly to nouns, but can also be used to modify a noun using the following rule:

• な-adjective + な + noun

For example:

They can also be conjugated into the negative, past and past negative using the same rules that apply to nouns:

• な-adjective + じゃない + noun
• な-adjective + だった + noun
• な-adjective + じゃなかった + noun

Exceptions

There is just one exception to the above conjugation rules, which is い_い_. It originates from 良よい_ and uses all of its conjugations. Since this word is quite common, it's best to remember it and the corresponding conjugation table.

Furthermore, the word かっこいい is also derived from い_い_, meaning that it uses the same conjugation patterns.

And some examples:

• これは_よくない事ことだ_ - This is not a good thing.